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Odd title for sure but, please read this anyway.
For anyone that has not watched any of the Star Trek shows or movies, Vulcans were an alien race that lived their entire lives based on logic. Logic. They trained themselves to not have emotions. They didn't FEEL what humans feel for the most part. It was odd, humorous, and in some ways they missed out on things in life. BUT... in some ways they did things right. I believe this world needs more vulcans.

Just the other day I(because I can't help myself sometimes) responded to a person on facebook talking about "love at first sight". I don't believe in that romantic notion and honestly don't believe most people really can understand what love REALLY is. If you feel like doing some extra reading, I urge you to read about Gomer in the bible. You can read about her in the book of Hosea in the bible.
Anyway,when I wrote on facebook the other day I talked about how love is blind. I mentioned how the "infatuation" stage of love has people blindly missing things, sometimes important ones. People "fall in love" with someone they're not even compatible with sometimes... because people FEEL something SO strongly that they overlook things they shouldn't. This, to me, is not love. Real love is seeing those things and overlooking them long after that infatuation has worn off.
Gomer was basically a prostitute that slept around. God told Hosea to marry her anyway. Time and time again, she went back to her old ways. The reason the story is in the bible is to demonstrate God's love for us. All of us. In the old testament, the Israelites turned from God repeatedly. They went off and worshiped idols and other "gods". Today, we wander away from God just as much as they did all those thousands of years ago. God loves us just the same.
Okay... where am I going with this? What does this have to do with vulcans?
Feelings... I am facing some trials right now and have people in my life that are SO filled with anger, hurt, and bitterness that they can't see anything else. It pains me to watch and leaves me baffled as to how to address it. I'm literally dumbfounded. I can see their hurt and their anger... I can understand it AND relate to it. But, I can often see other points of view that they are unable to. And, I get frustrated because their anger is hurting THEM and I want to rescue them from that. They are suffering. While I was thinking about it today I realized that anger is blind... which had me thinking, many emotions can do that to you... blind you. Anger, jealousy, "love", and many more. We often get SO wrapped up in things (quite often in ourselves really) that we cannot SEE anything else... Sometimes even when you're faced with real TRUTH you just can't see it.
For whatever reason... this had me thinking about Vulcans and how they didn't face this problem. They tackled life's issues with logic. Simple as that. We don't need to throw away our human emotions but we sure could use a LOT more of the Vulcan way. We need to be able to step back, away from the emotions and really see what we're dealing with. When the FEELINGS are TOO BIG they REALLY get in the way of everything else, including truth... And, it can prevent YOU from having peace.
What's important in life? Does it matter if that other person got the job you wanted? Does it matter that someone called you a name and hurt your feelings? What if someone stole from you? or lied to you? or... The list of offenses is endless. Every one of them can be legitimate reasons to get emotional...
But..... What do you do with those emotions? Don't hold onto them. Hurt that is. Love, you can hold onto that one.
But that anger and bitterness... resentment... Those are UGLY things that hurt YOU far more than anyone else.
Quite often(and something I'm seeing lately), once someone offends a person... nothing that other person does will ever be right... meaning, when someone offends you, quite often we end up going out of our way to find EVERY flaw and magnify it. EVERYTHING they do is now wrong... Sometimes... no, MOST of the time, there's a LOT of misunderstanding involved.
Currently I'm faced with a few people that I REALLY want to help in this area. I want them to see their own hurt for what it is and see that it is blinding them. I want some people to be able to not go through life seeking the bad in others... I want people to let go.............
How do you do that though? When someone is in a situation where they are hurting... how can you reach them?

There was an episode of Star Trek (I think Next generation)(yes, I'm bringing up Star Trek again... awesome right?) where one character crash landed on a planet. While there he was exposed to what he thought were human-like aliens but in fact was a propaganda simulation. These beings trained him to see another race on the planet as being mean and evil. He was essentially brainwashed. The simulation showed these poor people living in poverty and under oppression. The other race on the planet was, physically, ugly. So, that helped to encourage those beliefs. In the end, even AFTER being shown it was a training simulation and that he was lied to and manipulated... and told that the "ugly" race were nice... He STILL wanted to kill one of those "ugly" creatures when he saw one.
This happens in real life. Today, there are still people here in the US that are racist. People that hate based on very unimportant things. It's ugly... and it's blinding. Some people, you cannot reach with truths.
This can happen to anyone when they are hurt and angry towards another person. What you believe shapes everything you see in them. And quite often, it's simply not the truth.
So again.. I ask... How do you address people in these situations? I am asking because I honestly do not know. Again, I know a few people that I quite desperately want for them to see past their hurt and anger. But I just do not know how. In their minds, all of their anger is justifiable and there's nothing you can do or say to get them to see things any differently.
I guess for now all I can do is pray for them. Which I ought to do right now.

Dear Lord, I want to thank you for all that is good in my life. My friends, my family, my life. Even in times of trial you have been good to me. I ask Lord that you would bring peace to this hurting world... to my friends... my family... There is so much hurt right now and it pains me. I ask that you would soften hearts and open eyes. I pray that if I might be used in any way for this purpose that you would allow me to do so. I pray that you would bring the right words at the right times.
I pray for anyone struggling and hurting in life... that we would all take a lesson from the Vulcans and step back from our emotions and really look at the big picture. I pray that instead of seeing hurt we would see hurting people. I pray that we would have compassion for those that we might not even think deserve it. You asked us to love our enemies and pray for those that harm us. I pray that at the very least that we would do our best in that area. I pray that we will become changed beings and in doing so will change so many around us. Thank you for showing me how to love and please continue to help me to be that same love.
Amen.

Peace my friends...

"But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:" - Job 12:7